It's My Party
by souplover9
Summary: When your birthday gets pushed aside for someone—or something—else every year, you tend to hate birthdays. But when persistent friends and a crush come into the picture, can Bella's birthday become the highlight of her year? (A birthday O/S for willyoupleasebequiet.) [COMPLETE; M for some language and drinking]


I've always hated my birthday. Nothing good ever happened on the day, and I always ended up in tears (yes, I'm a crier). Let me give you some examples.

On my second birthday, there was a severe thunderstorm that knocked the power out for three days. I cried because it was dark and scary.

On my sixth birthday, Grandpa Swan suffered a massive stroke attack. He died the following day. We all spent the next couple of days crying.

The morning of my eleventh birthday, I was playing with the other kids in the neighborhood and broke my arm when I fell out of Mike's tree house. I cried, my mom cried, and my dad lectured me on playing safe. When Vanessa, my older sister by six years, arrived in the ER while I was getting my cast, she just laughed at me. That made me cry harder.

During my sixteenth birthday party, Nessa announced her engagement to her long-time boyfriend, Jake. They stole my thunder, and no one cared. Nessa had told me: "Bella, you'll always have a birthday. Getting engaged only happens once!" Things became awkward, and my friends left shortly after the announcement. I was surprised, sad, angry, lonely, and felt neglected. So, in a moment of _too many feels_, I decided that no one would get any cake. My best friend, Rose, was the only person who had stayed with me. We ate all of the chocolate mousse cake together. Needless to say, we had no regrets about that, especially when everyone started complaining about there being no cake.

On my nineteenth birthday, my parents decided that they wanted to go on an Alaskan cruise. It was September! Their argument was that since I was away at university, I should spend my birthday with my friends instead of driving up and spending the weekend with them. Also, the tickets were cheaper during the autumn season. I spent that birthday alone with a pint of ice cream and a stack of my favorite John Hughes '80s flicks. My roommate, absent as ever, never showed up, and in a moment of self-despair, I cried that I would be forever alone.

Notice a trend here?

After that, I stopped celebrating my birthday. I would receive the standard "happy birthday" text message and Facebook posts from friends and relatives, but no one did anything past that. Even thought I was used to it, it still hurt that my parent's wouldn't even send me a card. All I got was a lousy phone call, which more often that not, consisted of what Nessa and Jake were up to. I deemed myself emotionally scarred for life and didn't want to make it worse, so my birthday became another day of the week, with the same routine: school, work, and if I was in the mood, I hung out with friends.

It wasn't until my twenty-second birthday that life gave me a "plot twist," and my birthdays changed for the better.

It was August and I was soon to be twenty-two. Rose had graduated from Uni and had moved to the city. We were now roommates. It felt great having my best friend close by again.

Additionally, I started volunteering at the local animal shelter. I had always wanted a pet, but circumstance didn't allow for one. So I did the next best thing: volunteer to play with cute animals all day. There, I met my other best friend, Alice, and it was through her that I eventually met Edward.

Alice, who wanted to become a veterinarian, volunteered alongside me. We were the only volunteers that worked that shift, so we became close friends. One day while on shift, Alice stormed in outraged that I hadn't told her about my birthday. With a huff, she said: "I found out through Facebook! I thought we were better friends that that."

With a sigh, I ended up telling her why I hated my birthday and why I didn't celebrate them.

First, she sympathized, but then she got angry and began shouting. "You missed all the milestones! The Sweet 16, the Big 18, and your 21st! How is this even possible?"

"Alice, take a chill pill. I don't care. I don't celebrate my birthday for a reason. It all ends in disappointment or turns into a disaster."

Alice, the persistent devil that she is, insisted that she would fix this. Lo and behold, she did, but that's not to say that nothing went off without a hitch.

To make up for all the missed birthdays, Alice decided to throw me a wait for it…_Birthday Medley Party!_ I had no idea what it would entail, only that it would be a celebration of the milestone birthdays.

If you ask me, she went overboard. If you ask her, she was making up for the "what should have been." The week before my birthday, she handed me an invitation. It read:

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_You're invited to: Bella's Birthday Medley Party!_

_Host: Who else? The fabulous Alice_

_When: September 13_

_Time: 2PM SHARP_

_Location: Rose and Bella's place_

_Dress: Semiformal (don't you dare show up in jeans!)_

Join us as we celebrate the following:

_13– the year she became a teenager (yes, Aunt Flow is something to celebrate)_

_16– because she should have had more sweetness than just the cake_

_18– adulthood, yay!_

_21– bar crawl! 'Nuff said_

_23– she's lived another year! _

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I looked up from the paper, my face red with embarrassment. "Is this for real?" I asked surprised.

"Of course, silly Swan! Why wouldn't it be?" she asked in a "duh" voice and walked away.

Alice had outdone herself. She had sectioned off the party into parts. Each part corresponded to a birthday, which had its own theme. Thirteenth: a piñata and Mexican food (I had an obsession with chip and salsa when I was thirteen); Sixteenth and eighteenth: a huge, pink cake with lots of high school-esque party games including Truth or Dare and 7 minutes; Twenty-one and 23: a bar crawl.

I was pleasantly surprised. No one, including my parents, had ever done something this meaningful for me. I wanted to hug Alice and cry all at the same time, overrun with emotions. But I held my feelings in check, and settled on giving the party-thrower a bear hug.

The party went off without a hitch. At the party, there were both familiar and unfamiliar faces. Alice did a great job of inviting my friends, and she introduced me to some new folks, including her older brother, Edward. Hands down, meeting him was the highlight of my party—hell, it was the highlight of my year. I also met her cousin, Emmett, which to my surprise, he had hit it off with Rose.

I spent most of my time talking with Edward, who was a third-year law student. Talking to him felt so natural, as if I had known him for years, rather than hours. I didn't want our conversation to end, nor did I want him to leave, but as the saying goes, "all things must come to an end."

At four, Alice announced that it was time for the modified bar crawl. We would only hit up ten bars instead of the traditional twenty-one. Not being much of a drinker, I wasn't looking forward to it, but everyone else was so excited that I didn't want to dampen anyone's spirits. With fake enthusiasm, I went, all for the sake of unity, and because my life motto was to "never diss it 'till you try it." Unfortunately, Edward had to leave then, but not before we exchanged numbers. I wanted to cry. I didn't want him to leave, because then the connection and the feelings would go away; I wanted him to come with us so I could keep this lighthearted, floating feeling. After some light cleanup, and with a dampened mood, we all headed out.

Now, depending on whom you ask, the party either ended on a good note or on a bad one. To me, it was a disaster. After three drinks, everyone (myself included, to no surprise), discovered that I was a lightweight. Alice had to hold my hair back as I puked in the dingy bathroom of the bar. In the middle of a bar crawl, in a run-down bar that smelled of smoke, piss, and stale fried food, I started crying.

I think I startled Alice with all the crying. After three failed attempts of trying to explain why I was crying, I shouted: "I has too many feels, okay? Happy tearsssss."

Rose and Alice took me home early while the rest of the group continued the bar crawl. They helped me to bed, and before I knocked out, I shouted: "best birthday evaaaaa. I love you, besties."

The latter half of the party has always been a hazy memory for me, but it was one that has had a special place in my heart—we had reached a turning point.

Shortly after my birthday, Rose, Alice and I moved in together. Since Em and Rose were dating, the guys were over often, so we got to know each other well. Additionally, Alice had made it her mission to throw me a party every year, even when she was away at veterinary school. For my twenty-fourth, she attempted to throw me a long-distance birthday party. It didn't work, so we settled on the gang taking me out to dinner on her behalf.

The evening was peaceful and enjoyable, but the best part was when Edward and I walked along the pier after dinner, enjoying each other's company. Since it was a usually warm night, we didn't bring jackets. When a chilling breeze blew by, and I shivered, Edward wrapped his arm around me to keep me warm. As leaned into his embrace, trying to keep a straight face, I melted on the inside. It took all my willpower to keep myself from smiling like an idiot and squealing like a twelve year-old fan girl. That was the new highlight of my life.

You should know that by this point in time, I had formed a crush on him and was doing my best to keep that a secret. I didn't want to ruin the relationship, especially if he didn't return my feelings. I had heard and seen the end result of that situation—ruined friendships, too many times, and I did not want that. So, I carried on as usual.

By now, several years had passed. Edward and I were hanging out all the time, but we never dated each other. However, we did date other people, much to my dismay.

When Edward started dating Tanya, I became jealous. Not only did Edward and I stop hanging out as much, but we weren't as intimate. That emotional loss of the strong connection I have with him, hit me hard…hard enough to cry him a river.

On a night out with Rose, I drunkenly blurted out that he should be dating me. Rose, who had figured that out long ago, first teased me for being jealous then began berating for: one—being a huge ass chicken, and two—not taking any action.

"Oh for fuck's sake! It's the twenty-first century, Bella!" she said, hands waving through the air. "Stop being a chicken shit and make the first god-dammed move."

That lecture did nothing for me, and I continued on doing much of the same...nothing.

Less than a month after they started dating, Tanya and Edward, much to my joy, broke up. He said that the breakup was mutual, and there were no hard feelings between them. We quickly went back to how things were before he started dating, and I realized that I didn't want to feel that way ever again. This finally gave me the motivation to tell him, but once again, I found no courage to do so. I kept telling myself that I would tell him when the time was right, but I never found the _right_ time.

It was a stalling tactic for me, and once again, I fell onto the excuse that I didn't want to ruin our relationship. He was the best thing in my life, and I knew that I couldn't live without him. He was that important to me and my happiness.

I savored the moments I had with him, especially when we were out. We were so comfortable with each other that people often times thought we were a couple. Anytime someone said that, I fervently wished that it were true.

Time went on, and we were soon approaching my twenty-sixth birthday. I had recently finished my Masters in software engineering and was working for a small, local gaming company, which was conveniently located in the same building as the small law firm that Edward worked at. He worked on the fourth floor of the building while I worked on the second. When possible, we would grab lunch or carpool to work together. We lived in the same area of town, so commuting, in addition to hanging out, was convenient.

Alice had finished Veterinary school and had finally returned home that June. Being the wizard that she was, Alice figured out that I had feelings for Edward within _moments_ of seeing us together. It had taken Rose months. The moment she knew, she began telling me to let Edward know about my feelings for him, but as usual, my fears held me back. She dropped the subject, but I knew she would bring it up again.

That August, Rose and Emmett got married, which added a new set of feelings on top of my current ones for Edward. While I had imagined and daydreamed about marrying Edward, I had never fantasized about it.

After their wedding, I began dreaming about _my_ wedding with Edward as the groom. We were in a large garden with a short isle of flower petals leading me to him. In all the dreams, he was always smiling brightly at me as I slowly made my way to him, my arm linked with my dad's. I also started dreaming about having a family with him. My favorite dream was of us sitting in a meadow, wrapped in each other's arms as we watched our three kids play and run around.

Both Alice and Rose were encouraging me more and more to tell Edward about my feelings. Alice would always tell me a variation of "you never know, he may feel the same way!" whenever we talked about it. I kept telling her to let it go, and in typical Alice style, she would drop it only to bring it back up again.

Finally, it was time for my twenty-sixth birthday, and Alice, my designated party planner, had emailed out the invites. This time, though, she had left me in the dark about the theme, telling me that it would be a surprise.

One day during my lunch break, a week before my birthday, my phone pinged as Alice's email entered my inbox. I read it in surprise, never having imagined Alice doing something _this_ outrageous. She knew how conservative I was.

Shocked and slightly horrified, I ran upstairs to Edward's office, hoping that he was free and had finished his meeting with his client.

I ran past the reception desk and down the hall toward Edward's office, ignoring the receptionist. His door was open, so I stormed into his office, taking him by surprise. Thank God he was watching YouTube videos and was not working.

"Bella, are you okay?" he asked, turning around to face the door and standing up from his chair.

Huffing, I sat down across from him and handed him my phone. "Please tell me this is a joke. What is she thinking? She knows I don't like this stuff," I said between breaths.

"What is it?" he asked, looking at me.

"My birthday party invite. Read it."

Nodding, he began to read:

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_Bella's Annual Birthday Party_

_Host: Who else? (Alice)_

_Time: September 13, 7pm _

_Place: Where else? Bella's place_

_Theme: Truth or Dare GIFT EXCHANGE_

_In place of presents this year, we're doing a Truth or Dare exchange. Bring a Truth OR Dare that you want Bella to do. In exchange, Bella will give each one of you a Truth or Dare! (Note: please keep it PG-rated)_

…

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"Well, this is Alice," he said as a means of explanation.

"But I don't want this. She didn't even talk to me about this. It's my party, don't' I get veto rights or something?"

Edward chuckled. "Since when have you had a say in party planning?"

"Since now," I grumbled, crossing my arms.

He laughed at me and came around the desk to give me a hug. "Bella, this is Alice you're dealing with. It's easier to go with the flow. Besides, she's already sent out the email. This may end up being a good thing."

I should have picked up on that comment, but I was too distraught to notice. By the end of ten minutes, he had cheered me up a bit. I thanked him and returned to work.

I chewed Alice out after work. She gave a half-assed apology, which she didn't mean, and ended with, "Bella, learn to trust me."

I ignored the comment, still annoyed at her for not running the party theme past me fist.

The rest of the week flew by and before I knew it, it was the day of the party. I woke up to Alice pounding on my apartment door.

"No one's home," I shouted from my bedroom, hoping that she would disappear.

"Liar! I hear you. Open up before I use my spare key."

"Dammit," I muttered. I knew giving her my spare was a bad idea.

I wrenched open the door, dressed in my fluffy bathrobe. "It's eight in the morning, for the love of God," I complained as she strolled into the room with bags filled with décor and food.

"Yes, and we have a lot to do before then! Rose will be here at ten to help."

"Alice, sometimes you're too much."

"I know. I'm a force to be reckoned with," she replied with a huge smile. "Go get dressed, Oscar the Grouch, and I'll make some breakfast."

With that, we spent the day cleaning and setting up my apartment for the party. At one point, Alice had me write out all the Truth or Dare cards for the guests. Thankfully, there were only ten people, so I didn't have to put too much creative energy into it.

My mood hadn't lifted by the time evening had arrived. If anything, I was beginning to stress out. On top of not wanting a Truth or Dare themed party, I wasn't looking forward to this at all. I was stressed out from a big project at work and too damn emotional for a party that would no doubt, leave me in tears.

By five o'clock, we were done setting up. Rose and Alice practically shoved me into the shower while they cooked dinner.

"They thought of everything," I said to myself as I looked at the outfit they had picked out and placed on my bed. I dressed and made my way out, knowing that Alice would want to do my hair and makeup, as she always did.

The party started soon thereafter, and everyone was having a good time, including me, much to my surprise. Finally, it was "gift" time. I tried stalling, but everyone had ganged up on me. Giving in, I took the stack of envelopes from the coffee table and began matching the names up with my pile.

While I was doing that, Alice explained the rules to the group. "Bella will first open one of your cards. Once she does the Truth or Dare that you wrote, you'll do the one that she wrote for you. Got it? Good. Let's begin!"

Mike's card was first. On the front it said DARE. On the back, he wrote: "Go to the kitchen and eat a spoonful of Chili powder." After complaining about the Dare, I completed the challenge and washed the pepper down with a large glass of milk. It helped take some of the edge off the heat.

The night carried on with Truths and Dares of similar note, finally getting down to the last two cards. I let out a sigh of relief; we were almost done, but I was also dreadful because I knew Alice would put something I didn't want in there.

I pulled out Alice's card. Her truth asked: Who is your current crush?

If looks could kill, I would have incinerated Alice. She sat there grinning like the Cheshire cat, knowing that I had to tell the truth, otherwise she would call me out on it and share the news with the world. I wanted to kill her.

With flushed cheeks, and eyes cast toward the ground, I mumbled, "Edward."

"What was that? I didn't hear you," Alice said loudly.

I glared at her. "You just love to torture me, don't you?"

"Of course, Swany. Now spill!"

"Edward," I said a little louder.

I thought I had said it quiet enough that no one could hear me over their giggles and laughs, but I was wrong. There was no sound as all eyes were on Edward, trying to determine his reaction. Glancing around the room, I noticed that no one looked surprised at my admission. It made me wonder if everyone knew I liked him, or if loudmouth Alice, or possibly Rose, had told everyone.

I looked at him and he was biting his lower lip. Other than that, his face didn't give anything away. My heart dropped when Edward remained quiet. Feeling humiliated and fearing the absolute worst, I tried to hold back I tears. I didn't want to cry in front of them. Lord knows I've cried on too many birthday parties in the past.

"Open the next card," Alice gently prompted, interrupting the silence.

I nodded and opened the last card. It was Edward's. Slowly, I pulled out the truth and flipped it to read the back. My heart stopped. Blinking, I read the card again, thinking my eyes were tricking me:

_If I asked you out on a date, would you say yes? _

Shocked, I looked up at Edward completely bewildered. He likes me and he wanted to go on a date with me! I opened my mouth to say "yes," but nothing came out. Closing my mouth, I tried again, but no sound came out. Pretty sure I looked like a fish.

I was too emotional to speak, so I settled for a nod, which caused Edward to smile brightly.

He reached around and pulled me into a hug. The moment I was in his embrace, I began crying.

"What happened?" everyone asked in confusion. "Why was Bella crying?"

"I'm going on a date with Edward!" I called out, finding my voice as more tears poured down my face.

"Then why are you crying?" Mike asked.

My voice full of emotion, I replied, "Happy tears."

The guys didn't seem to get it, but Edward, knowing me better than most, understood. He kept me in his arms, rubbing my back as the girls tried to explain the difference between happy tears, sad tears, and all the other kinds of tears that girls had.

"Happy birthday, love," Edward whispered in my ear.

I grinned up at him, and placed a kiss on his cheek.

"Thank you. How did you know I liked you?" I asked him.

"Emmett," he said, smiling. "Rose told him one night after you guys had gone out this past summer, and he told me. He already knew that I liked you, so it was just a matter of time before I mustered up the courage to tell you. When Alice sent out the invites for your party, I knew this would be the perfect opportunity. And I'm sure Emmett told Rose I like you, because they can't keep things from each other."

"Then Rose told me, and I knew this was the PERFECT opportunity for you guys to finally tell each other how you feel!" Alice interjected, bouncing up and down like a child, with a huge smile.

I laughed, never having imagined that we would share our feelings like this. My heart was suddenly lighter than it had been in a long time. I was euphoric, floating on cloud nine. My dream had come true. I was blissful and couldn't wait to begin this chapter of my relationship with Edward.

Making a mental note to tell Alice thanks, I wrapped myself around Edward, thinking: happy birthday to me, indeed.

**-THE END-**

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A/N: If you got to the end of this, mucho thanks for reading. This was a silly, little (belated) birthday fic for willyoupleasebequiet. She is the best, and is awesome-sauce. Love ya tons, girl. Thank you babykay19 and AngelHeadedHipster for the beta job. And if anyone's wondering, Alice is based off a real-life friend, who has done some of the things that Alice did. :)


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